Market history 1962
The 1962 crash and the Cuban missile crisis
The S&P 500 through the episode, from its peak to its low and back to the peak, and what happened.
S&P 500, daily closeFall, peak to lowThe peak's levelThe episode's months
S&P 500 daily close, price only. Yahoo Finance, ^GSPC, to 30 Oct 2026.
What happened
Expensive growth stocks broke in the spring of 1962. On 28 May the index fell about 7% in a day, then the worst since 1929. It bottomed in June, about a quarter below its high, and was rattled again by the Cuban missile crisis in October before recovering.
Play it
The Trading Simulator replays two years of the S&P 500 from July 1961, day by day: stay invested or move to cash, and finish ahead of the index if you can. The game counts dividends, so its figures differ from the price figures here.
On Andra Markets
How the figures are measured
From the S&P 500's daily closes, price only: dividends are not included. An episode's fall is the largest drop from a close to a later close within its months, from the highest close before the low. Where an episode's text measures from a peak in the episode before or to a low in the episode after, the figures do too: the Great Depression from the 1929 peak, Sputnik and the 1957 recession from the 1956 high, and the Volcker squeeze to the low of August 1982. Months are calendar months, rounded. Back at the peak is the first close at or above the peak's close.
The text of each episode is the one the Trading Simulator shows at the end of a game. For information only. Not investment advice.